Research
Opportunities

There
are many opportunities for students to participate in and conduct research
in geology at Bryn Mawr. Many geology courses include small
independent research projects in the library or laboratory. All undergraduate
majors complete a senior
thesis involving independent research. Many undergraduates also participate
in summer research experiences, either with Bryn Mawr faculty or faculty
at other institutions.

Summer
Internships

Geoscience
Research Programs at Bryn Mawr

Petrology
and TectonicsMaria Luisa Crawford and William A. Crawford
have been engaged in a long term effort, in collaboration with colleagues
at several other institutions including the University of Arizona, Princeton
University, Virginia Tech, and West Chester University in the Appalachian
belt in the Piedmont area of Pennsylvania and adjacent parts of Delaware
and Maryland; and in the central part of the coast orogen of British Columbia
and southeastern Alaska. Our goal is to to investigate mechanisms of crustal
growth by tectonic accretion and associated deformation, by magmatic addition,
and by uplift and to establish the thermal history of the rocks affected.
At Bryn Mawr we emphasize igneous and metamorphic petrology and geochemistry
as well as structural analysis of deep-seated rocks. Our collaborative
arrangements provide access to isotopic geochemistry and geochronology.
We also were part of the ACCRETE Continental Dynamics project team. Many
students have participated in field and laboratory components of this
research.

Structural
Geology, Paleomagnetism and Tectonics
Research in structural geology at Bryn Mawr is currently led by Arlo B. Weil. More info about
Arlo's research is available here.

Paleontology
Paleontology at Bryn Mawr is based on the premise that understanding
extinct organisms can be acheived in non-traditional ways, including
study of living counterparts and computer simulations. Professor Bruce Saunders has been
active in a twenty-year program in marine biology, focused on study
of the chambered nautiuls and deep-water crustaceans, at such remote
sites as Micronesia, Papua, New Guinea and the Great Barrier Reef. This
has provided a basis for calculating and simulating how long-extinct
fossil counterparts, the ammonites, might have lived. His study of the
worlwide distribution of these organisms has led to formulation of new
views of the influence of worldwide sea level fluctuations on evolution,
extinction, and the stratigraphic record.